PB 240 | 198 x 129
ISBN: 9781922858214 | $24.99
Short Fiction | Also available as ebook
MidnightSun Publishing | October 2023
Distributed by NewSouth Books

A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK.

A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend.

Two ungendered characters contest the same female body.

A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied.

Lauren Foley’s debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women’s bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.

‘Lacerating and sexy, the heat sears off (and through) the pages.’
– June Caldwell

‘With her form-bending debut collection, Polluted Sex, Irish/Australian Lauren Foley joins a cohort of contemporary authors – including Cathy Sweeney, Claire-Louise Bennett, Eimear McBride – whose work seems dissatisfied with narrative conventions. What happens when we blow them open? … Polluted Sex alternately challenges, interests, confuses, humours, shocks, and engages its reader. What art ought to do.’
– Irish Independent

‘Religion, desire and sin are laid bare and made strange in Foley’s succulent language that drips from the page like an overripe fruit, sweet but spoiling at the same time.’
– Books Ireland